Site Philosophy

This site operates as an independent editorial operation. Advertising, sponsorships, and other non-editorial materials represent the opinions and messages of their respective origins, and not of the site operator or JiWire, Inc.

October 6, 2006

XM Treading on 2.3 GHz Licenses

By Glenn Fleishman

XM Radio revealed that many of its ground transmitters are out of compliance: The company told the FCC that 221 repeaters (which are really very little different from terrestrial radio stations) were operating above their power levels and 19 repeaters were using out-of-band frequencies. The ground stations are a critical, often-overlooked part of XM and Sirius’s coverage requirements for their radio services, offering a boost to signal strength in areas where the satellite signal can’t penetrate, mostly in urban areas.

Because XM’s licenses adjoin 2.3 GHz licenses that will be used for services such as WiMax, there’s apparently some real anger, as expressed in this article. This article says that there’s little deployed in 2.3 GHz, but my sources say there aren’t a lot of users, but there are a number of deployments.

The FCC is evaluating what its response should. An industry trade group wants a full enforcement action to bring XM into compliance.